Point of View in
Personal Memory

John Sutton, Philosophy Department, Macquarie University, Sydney.
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Reading Group and Reference List
In remembering my past experiences, I can have either field memories, in which I see remembered events
    from my own past perspective, or observer memories, in which I see myself in the remembered past
    (Nigro & Neisser, 1983). Our reading group addresses puzzles and issues about this distinction and the
    phenomena it covers by bringing related philosophical literature to bear on the empirical issues, which are
    of increasing interest to cognitive and clinical psychologists. In particular, we think it helpful to distinguish the
    (quasi-)perceptual perspective of autobiographical remembering from the emotional perspective, because the
    two can come apart (I can have emotionally detached field memories, or be highly engaged in my observer
    memories, for example). There are a wide range of related phenomena, rather than a straightforward distinction.

August 16, 2006. Discussion of
    Georgia Nigro & Ulric Neisser, ‘Point of View in Personal Memories’, Cognitive Psychology 15 (1983), 467-482
August 23, 2006. Discussion of
    Heather McIsaac & Eric Eich, ‘Vantage Point in Episodic Memory’, Psychonomic Bulletin & Review 9 (2002), 146-150
    Heather McIsaac & Eric Eich, ‘Vantage Point in Traumatic Memory’, Psychological Science 15 (2004), 248-253
August 30, 2006. Discussion of
    Richard Wollheim, The Thread of Life (Yale UP, 1984), chapters 3 & 4, on central and acentral imagining and remembering
September 13, 2006. Discussion of
    Peter Goldie, 'One's Remembered Past: narrative thinking, emotion, and the external perspective, Philosophical Papers 32 (2003), 301-319.
We will reconvene in November and December 2006.

Current reading group participants: Catharine Abell, Michaela Baker, John Buckmaster, Philippa Byers, Russell Downham, Jordi Fernandez,
    Catriona Mackenzie, Jacqui Poltera, John Sutton, Carl Windhorst.

Field & Observer Memory: a brief selective bibliography (please add to this!)
1. The basic psychological studies
- Sigmund Freud, ‘Screen Memories’ (1899), various editions.
- Georgia Nigro & Ulric Neisser, ‘Point of View in Personal Memories’, Cognitive Psychology 15 (1983), 467-482
- J.A. Robinson & S. Swanson, ‘Field and observer modes of remembering’, Memory 1 (1993), 169-184
- Daniel Schacter , Searching for Memory (Basic Books, 1996), pp.21-25
- Heather McIsaac & Eric Eich, ‘Vantage Point in Episodic Memory’, Psychonomic Bulletin & Review 9 (2002), 146-150
 
2. Applications across psychology (personality, emotion, trauma etc) - sample
- Mark G. Frank & Thomas Gilovich, ‘Effect of Memory Perspective on Retrospective Causal Attributions’, Journal of Personality and
    Social Psychology 57 (1989), 399-403
- Lisa K. Libby, Richard P. Eibach, & Thomas Gilovich, ‘Here’s Looking at Me: the effect of memory perspective on assessments of
    personal change’, Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 88 (2005), 50-62
- Heather McIsaac & Eric Eich, ‘Vantage Point in Traumatic Memory’, Psychological Science 15 (2004), 248-253
- Patrick P. Macnamara et al, ‘Modes of Remembering in Patients with Chronic Pain’, Journal of Nervous and Mental Disease 193 (2005), 53-57
- Cedric Lemogne et al, ‘Episodic Autobiographical Memory in Depression: specificity, autonoetic consciousness, and self-perspective’,
    Consciousness & Cognition xx (2005), at www.lpelab.org/tiki-download_file.php?fileId=191
 
3. Relevant parts of philosophy (in moral psychology & aesthetics)
- Kendall Walton, ‘Points of View in Narrative and Depictive Representation’, Nous 10 (1976), 49-61
- Richard Wollheim, The Thread of Life (Yale UP, 1984), chs 3 & 4 on centrally and acentrally (or centred and acentred) imagining and remembering
- Catriona Mackenzie, ‘Imagining Oneself Otherwise’, in Mackenzie & Stoljar (eds.) Relational Autonomy, (Oxford UP, 2000), 124-150.
- Peter Goldie, ‘One’s Remembered Past: Narrative Thinking, Emotion, and the External Perspective’; ‘Narrative, Emotion, and Perspective’;
        ‘Emotion, Personality, and Simulation’, all via http://www.socialsciences.manchester.ac.uk/philosophy/staff/goldie/publicat.htm

- Greg Currie on point of view in imagination and cinema - refs?
- Murray Smith, 'Imagining from the Inside', in Richard Allen and Murray Smith (eds), Film Theory and Philosophy (Clarendon Press, 1997)
- Alessandro Giovanelli, 'In and Out: the dynamics of imagination in narrative participation, at http://www.um.es/logica/giovannelly.htm
- Jinhee Choi, 'Leaving it up to the Imagination: POV shots and imagining from the inside', Journal of Aesthetics and Art Criticism 63 (2005), 17-25

4. Relation to delusional out-of-body experiences/ autoscopy/ lucid dreams?
Vaughan Bell, ‘How to have an out-of-body experience’, at
http://arginine.spc.org/vaughan/VaughanMindHacks89OutOfBody.pdf
Susan Blackmore, ‘A Psychological Theory of the Out-of-Body Experience’, Journal of Parapsychology 48 (1984), 201-218
Susan Blackmore, ‘Lucid Dreams and Viewpoints in Imagery’, at http://spiritwatch.ca/luciddreamsandview.htm
Peter Brugger, ‘Reflective Mirrors: perspective-taking in autoscopic phenomena’, Cognitive Neuropsychiatry 7 (2002), 179-194


For further information contact
John Sutton, Philosophy Department, Macquarie University, Sydney.
Email me.
Back to my home page.
Back to the ISM (Interdisciplinary Study of Memory) main page.

Last updated 20 October 2006.